Promise local energy jobs will stay

The Port Macquarie MP has reassured the community that no jobs will be lost in a restructure of the electricity network.Essential Energy employs more than one-thousand workers in the region.Earlier this week mayoral candidate for the Port-Macquarie-Hastings Council Lisa Intemann called on the state government to guarantee that no jobs would be lost as part of the restructure.But Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams says that promise has already been made."It was made fairly clear when the announcement was made earlier this year there would be no frontline jobs lost in Port Macquarie, as a result of those reforms to the distribution network.

"And in fact the Premier Barry O'Farrell was here on the 20th of March he also made it perfectly clear that there would be no job losses from the power sector in Port Macquarie," she said.

Lisa Intemann says there are assurances that frontline positions as safe, but she wants a stronger promise.

Leslie Williams says one was already given by the Premier when he said there would be no job losses from the power sector in Port Macquarie during a visit in March.

"Essential Energy will remain as it is.

"There will be no changes to customers," she said.

"So I have every confidence that that's the way it's going to stay.

"People should be very happy that the Premier himself has made that commitment to the people of Port Macquarie," she said.

You have no doubt been hearing a lot about the Paris Agreement and know that it pertains to climate change, but are too embarrassed at this stage to ask for an overall explanation of what it's all about.